if cd technology is improving so quickly......
Posted by: Kyew on 05 February 2003
many 'audiophiles' and 'industry experts' in magazines and on the internet claim that cd technology has improved dramatically (even exponentially) over the years.
if this is true, then shouldn't a player that costs 400-500 pounds today (eg a marantz 6000 KI) sound better than a 1000 pound cd player that was launched four/five years ago(eg the cd3.5)?
I have listened to current cd players ranging from 400-1000 pounds but i have yet to hear any model which can beat the cd3.5.(according to my ears)
do other fellow naim owners feel the same?
CD3.5/92R/90.3
Posted on: 05 February 2003 by Bob Shedlock
The cynic in me asks, "What do they mean when they refer to improvement?".
Are they refering to the fact that CD production
no longer requires "clean room" technology?
Or is it the implementation of copy protection?
Or that on the manufactuters have finally recouped tooling expenses and now have a greater profit margin?
Arguably all of the above can be seen as "improvements". Exponential even!
Posted on: 05 February 2003 by syd
I think they're referring to the fact that CD replay, manufacture and digital recording have improved from the unlistenable mess that was their at the launch 20 odd years ago. Mass market players have improved out of all recognition to the first Sony/Philips/Marantz units. But when the HI End manufacturers Linn/Naim/Meridian/Mission and so on got in on the act a few years later they went back to the sonic attributes that made their Amps and speakers desirable. They modified the OEM mechanics and tweaked the power supplies and components, redesigned circuitry all in an attempt to make the players more musical, more analogue if you like. Today these designs can still show a thing or to to the electronics giants mass produced players. Good design of the basics in the audio chain should always be better than the latest upsampling, oversampling this that and the other sampling. Good designers constantly listen to their players and if it sounds better but measures worse so be it. Japan inc. and the rest of the mass market rely 100% on measurements.
Yours in Music
Syd
Posted on: 05 February 2003 by Craig B
IMO, the quality of CD player sound reproduction improved most dramatically during the mid to later 1980's with the help of the UK specialist manufacturing sector's input into power supply and analog output stage development as much as anything that Philips/Sony et al offered in transport and multi-bit decoder developments.
On my graph of relative performance, with the original Philips/Sony/Japan Incorporated machines as the base starting point, I'd have Meridian's MCD and MCD Pro rebuilds of the Philips CD101(?) as the first milestone peaks with Mission's rebadged players sprinkled between. Arcam would also figure prominently as the first UK manufacturer to fully roll their own musical sounding machines using Philips mechs and chip sets and internally separated power supplies. These players can still sound very good 15+ years on! (Not to belittle the performace achieved by some of the Japanese major's top level offerings but, to be fair [or not], their prices far exceeded their promise of superior performance).
AFAIAC, not much has improved sonically beyond what Naim originally offered with the CDS, so for me the 1990's portion of the line curve would be rather flat. There have been refinements, I'd agree, but nothing as revolutionary as the marketing departments and audio rags/wags would have us believe.
Craig
